Page 115 of The Crown’s Gift

At the first formal dinner, she forgot the name of a neighboring baronet's eldest son and recovered by asking about his horses. At the first tenant reception, a farmer addressed every answer to Darcy despite Elizabeth's question. Darcy redirected him without humiliation.

"Mrs Darcy asked about the south field," he said. "She knows more of drainage than I did at our marriage."

"Only because Papa considers it courtship conversation," Elizabeth replied.

The farmer laughed and answered her.

The monthly open afternoon began in April. The first visitor was a tenant widow who wished to move to a smaller cottage but feared losing her garden. The second was a schoolgirl requesting more books. The third came only to see whether the new Mrs Darcy truly had dark eyes and a royal locket.

"Do I meet the report?" Elizabeth asked the child.

"Your eyes are darker."

"Then truth has improved upon rumor."

Darcy watched from the doorway, pride warming him without possession.

Elizabeth did not perform every duty easily. A dinner for thirty exhausted her. She offended an elderly neighbor by seating a naval captain above him. She cried once after receiving three cold letters from Darcy relations and then became angry with herself for crying.

Darcy found her in the gallery.

"Lady Selwyn says I lack understanding of Derbyshire precedence."

"Lady Selwyn says everyone lacks what she alone supplies."

"Your cousin writes that I encourage Georgiana to be forward."

"Georgiana spoke three sentences at dinner. The family is unprepared."

Elizabeth smiled weakly. "I thought I would not care."

"Why must indifference prove strength?"

He sat beside her. She leaned against him.

"I miss Netherfield."

"Then we shall go."

"Not because I am unhappy here."

"You may love one home and miss another."

Letters came almost daily. Lady Bennet reported weather, neighbors, and rumors. Sir Thomas reported Longbourn yields and asked Darcy's opinion of a drainage design before rejecting the answer in a postscript. Jane described married life at Longbourn and Bingley's search for an estate. Mary sent music. Kitty enclosed sketches. Lydia requested permission to invite Georgiana to an officers' charity concert and included an account proving the funds would be supervised.

Elizabeth kept every letter.

In May, she and Darcy walked to the small temple at sunset.

The valley was green again. Pemberley's windows held the light.

"Does it feel like home?" he asked.

Elizabeth considered. "More each day. Not because I have learned every name. Because I am allowed not to know them yet."

Darcy kissed her temple. "I still discover Pemberley."

"You were born here."